


we're not done yet

by Iki_teru



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, I have no additional tags but this space looks empty, it's three am I'm sorry world, watch as I fumblingly avoid writing action scenes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 08:09:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6110437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iki_teru/pseuds/Iki_teru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>what's the point of being something extra special fancy like a Princess of Heart if you can't actually do anything to help? Kairi and the other princesses decide enough is enough and take matters into their own hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we're not done yet

**Author's Note:**

> again, back in 2014 I foolishly thought I could write things on a time limit and asked for prompts. the dear Synchroshatter sent me " how about the Princesses of Heart teaming up to fight Heartless?" and I proceeded to flake off on them for a year plus. 
> 
> I wanted to do more with this, but the more I poked and prodded it the less it began to resemble anything so I decided to leave well enough alone. 
> 
> Entirely self edited, con crit welcome. Apologies in advance.

Kairi can feel the darkness like a physical thing. It lingers in the air, scratching at her skin, her bones, her heart. Sora and Riku don't seem to be as aware of it as she is, at least not outside of fights. but Kairi? Kairi feels it all the time, like a low hum at the base of her skull. It fills her mouth and chokes her throat and clouds her eyes. The darkness is everywhere.

They do what they can, when they can, to fight it back. Between school and family and training (Yen Sid says again and again they aren't _done_ they aren't ready not yet, not now, not today) and missions to beat back the encroaching darkness it's amazing that they have the time or inclination for anything else. Maybe it's their youth working in their favor, or sheer pigheadedness, but despite everything they manage to find time to splash in the surf and chase each other up and down the beach.

(She asks them, only once, as they watched the sunset if they couldn't taste the darkness even here on the islands. But they looked at her like they didn't recognize her and she had laughed it off and swallowed the sense of _wrong_  in her mouth.)

It comes as no surprise to Kairi the day she scribbles the note and pins it under the paperweight on top of her dresser to the boys. _I'll be back soon._ It was something she couldn't explain but something she had become increasingly convinced she must do.

There are corridors of darkness and, it turns out if you know where to look, corridors of light too. The scratchy feeling subsides here, surrounded by the light of worlds, but something still drags her forward and Kairi goes willingly.

The others are already there. Kairi can't bring herself to be surprised. It makes sense really, that they would feel it too.

What is surprising is the long minute it takes Kairi to realize who exactly she's staring at. Other than Alice everyone is nearly unrecognizable, dressed in plain clothes and smiling nervously at her and she realizes the other princesses are much closer to her own age than she had thought once.

Some of the have brought weapons. She sees the hilt of a blade at Jasmine's waist, couldn't miss the shield strapped to Aurora's back, but more of them are unarmed than anything. It's weirdly encouraging.

Cinderella steps forward with an easy smile, takes Kairi's hand in her own. Her hands are calloused- not in the same places as Kairi’s own- these aren’t from training and holding a weapon but from years of hard work. It’s surprising; and Kairi recalls the satin gloves Cinderella had been wearing the first time they met. There had been a certain ethereal quality to her. To all of the other princesses. This discovery, that they could be girls just like her was surprisingly grounding. "We knew you'd be here soon," she says and Kairi flushes at the sheer amount of affection in her voice. "If you’ll lead, we'll follow." says Cinderella, taking another step back.

Kairi looks from face to face; at the girls tumbling against the cusp of womanhood. At Alice who still seems so young and small but is standing so straight shouldered and brave. Kairi offers a smile of her own, summons Destiny's Embrace and turns.

They're at the very thick of things, drawn here by their own innate abilities to sense darkness. Ahead is not a throng so much as a writhing mass of heartless, from this distance it's impossible to make out eyes or any kind of individuality.

Kairi feels like she should say something inspirational- but the other girls already seem set, seem aware of the odds they're facing, and any words she tries turn to ash in her mouth. So she nods and begins forward. Her gait is slow at first, arms swinging at her side and teeth clenched and she picks up the pace- slides into a jog, into a run, into a full tilt, and she's closer now, can see the glow of eyes now and she draws Destiny's embrace back for the first swing.

She cuts a swath through the darkness but more heartless pour around her than she could possibly contain on her own. Kairi panics, worrying about the girls behind her. She is about to turn and run back to their side when she hears Alice cry out, “duck!” Kairi listens on instinct and a tiny, smoky crocodile comes swooping through the air, snapping at the heartless and there’s more nonsensical forms zipping overhead, leaving a sweet scent behind as they lose their forms.

“We’ve got your back!” Snow calls out, and it’s such a strange phrase to hear in her sweet tone but Kairi has no time to ponder on how little she actually knows of her companions. She grits her teeth and delves back into the fray.

Behind her the others have begun singing. It's nonsense words and if she tries to listen it's a cacophony of melodies and yet...and yet the sounds flow together, weave into each other and she picks up hints about dreams and wishes and courage and before she knows what she's doing, Kairi's mouth falls open to add her voice to the song.

It won't be until later, when the fighting is ended and she is three degrees beyond exhausted and Belle and Snow are dragging her half conscious body home that she realizes they made a spell, that the shimmers dancing across her skin as she dove into battle hadn't been a hallucination, had been -protection- wrought by her own heart and the hearts of her sisters. That the mint taste in her mouth, the wind at her back, the way she powered through, rising above the heads of Shadows and Soldiers, would never have been possible without this strange alignment.

Everyone is exhausted and hurt and bleeding and tending to one another. Aurora's beautiful hair has been burnt at the edges and Jasmine helpfully hacks off the worse of it, lets the golden curtain of hair go to fall around Aurora's shoulders. When Kairi laments the curls her only response is “please, call me Rose."

“Is that it then, did we officially win?”

Belle hums to herself, checking a dial on a little metal sphere she’s been carrying. She writes down whatever she sees there in careful script in a tiny notebook that she tucks back into her pocket. “We crippled them, it should be quiet for a while now. Hopefully long enough for you and your friends to take a break and enjoy life a little more.”

“A year,” says Jasmine. “It should buy you at least a year. I wish we could do more.” She stretches, tucking the sword under the robe she’s donned for the trip home. “Now comes the truly horrifying part: making my excuses when I get home.”

Hugs are exchanged, everyone holds on a little too tight. It’s all warm and affection though and it’s another aspect that Kairi has to fit in with her mental picture of the other princesses.

“Perhaps we could get together sometime, without all the worlds being in peril.” Cinderella says, pressing a soft kiss to Kairi’s cheek.

Belle is the last to leave. She gives Kairi’s hand another affectionate squeeze. “You were truly amazing out there, like a knight from a fairy tale.”

The laughter comes unbidden, bubbling out before Kairi can stop it and she realizes she’s shaking because the whole thing has been so _surreal_. “Even better,” she giggles, “I’m a princess.”

 


End file.
